Gyan Book Foundation

The charitable Gyan Book Foundation is more than a passing fancy or whimsical notion. It is a strong desire, a very real wish, which Bridges would be pleased to support. However no action plan with a time-line for 2011 or even another, far off, year has been prepared. No specific goals have been set. And, as Peter Drucker aptly remarked, until goals degenerate into real work, they are just dreams.

This particular dream belongs to the president and founder of a firm offering DP/IT services in Mumbai, India. As a very first step she has given her dream a name and a leitmotiv: the Gyan Book Foundation - where knowledge is ever growing. (The name is derived from “gyan,” the Sanskrit word for knowledge.) The purpose is to promulgate the love of reading. The underlying principle is, to paraphrase the biblical aphorism, not to give people fish (hence feeding them for a day), but to teach them how to fish (feeding them for a lifetime). In this case what is being encouraged, reading, is a key to lifetime learning.

Hence the Gyan Book Foundation will seek to make books more widely available to people who cannot ordinarily afford them in Mumbai. As the city has a population of over 13 million, larger than that of many countries, this initial geographical limitation appears eminently reasonable.Mumbai offers an interesting precedent, as she explains:

“In India, specifically Mumbai, books are not easily available. If you are an avid reader you would have to pay hefty fees to a Library & become a member of it or go & buy your own copy. I have bought books second hand from the street vendors at Flora Fountain. They have a wide variety of books in all genres & in good condition too. I remember the last time I went to purchase books from there, the seller told me about an Exchange Scheme they have been offering to their regular customers.

The Scheme was that you buy a book from them & then sell it back to them & they will return you 80% of the original purchase price of the book. Of course it’s difficult for me to travel so far as Flora Fountain & the last time I went there was almost 2 years ago. So I really didn’t want to be part of the scheme. Then the book seller told me that I can bring the book anytime even after years & if they were still there they would refund me 80% of the purchase prices. I remember the book seller from whom I bought about 5 books, he wrote at the back of the book his name & date of purchase of book & also indicated that it was under the Buy-Back Scheme.”

By no means would the Gyan Book Foundation be a solitary voice crying in the wilderness. Book-lovers are active worldwide, as reviewing the websites below will show. Yet there is always room for one more charity that is competently managed and governed by compassionate common sense. Similarly there will be room in the world of book-lovers for the Gyan Book Foundation.

One could begin by leaving some children´s books at a school or orphanage. The concept is explained on the website:

"Welcome to Bookcrossing, where people . . . share their passion for books withthe world. Where books take on a life of their own. How? It's easy.

Simply click on the link below and sign up for free in less than 1 minute-- that's it!

A book registered on BookCrossing is ready for adventure . . .

Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. . .anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate . . .Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person."